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Will the Dodgers’ massive future payroll commitments handcuff Andrew Friedman?

Andrew Friedman leaving the Rays for the Dodgers is rough on Tampa Bay, but I’m fascinated with the situation as an experiment/test case. What happens when you take someone who thrived running a team with $50 million and give him $250 million?

Of course, Friedman won’t exactly have a clean slate waiting for him in Los Angeles.

In fact, the Dodgers’ future payroll commitments are pretty crazy. They already have $190 million in guaranteed salaries for 2015, plus $170 million for both 2016 and 2017. They even have $130 million committed for 2018.

Their payroll this season was an MLB-high $240 million, but the Dodgers’ incredibly lucrative television contract suggests that will just keep rising and rising. In other words: Friedman is coming to a team that has a ridiculous amount of money already tied up many years into the future, but he still might have a ton of money to sling around.

This has the potential to be very interesting. And very scary for the rest of the NL West.

Follow @AaronGleeman